This and That

We went to the Portland Homestead Supply Store this morning.  Got a couple Weck jars, a little knit chicken for a baby we know who's turning one year old this weekend, a plastic bag dryer (I'm behind the times and tired of throwing away plastic bags, so I've been trying to wash and keep them), a book on wreath making (I might have time in five years to do this!), and I forget what else.  [Edit: I remember now-- an allspice trivet (will smell good when a warm pan is put on it) and a jar of meadowfoam honey.]  Hard to leave there empty handed.  Our main purpose for going there is to visit the chickens and goats.  Baby loves it.  We went to see them two or three times and when we were back in the store to check out, Baby kept signing for more.  I told her they were taking a nap.

I'd like to have an outdoor clothesline (yes, for the month or two out of the year that I can use it).  Not sure where it'll go.  I found this tutorial on Mother Earth News.  Too much building and wood work for me but maybe Husband would be willing to rig something up.

We've been going down to the river.  That's Pug, above, smelling the smells down there.  The day before Mother's Day, I took the kayak out, rowed upstream for a bit, and when I got back to the path we use, there was a bald eagle standing right on the bank!  Bummer I didn't have my camera with me-- I'd even almost taken it too!  I watched it for about a minute before it flew away.  Sometimes I see the sea lions out there too, but not this time.

Our dear little guinea pig, Guinevere, passed away yesterday.  She was the sweetest pig and she came from Pleasantville, NY.  She was getting old and I guess it was just her time.  Husband will bury her in the backyard near Molly (our other pig from NY).  I think we'll be guinea pigless for a while now.  Having a baby and pug alone is quite a bit of work.  When D is older and wants something (rat? bunny? guinea pig?  I'm saying no to snakes) we'll get a critter then.  She understood something happened to Guinevere, since at one point during the day G was there and later, she wasn't.  Unsure and undecided on how to talk to D about it, I said Guinevere was sick and died and went to guinea pig heaven, and that she was with other guinea pigs now.  When D seemed to want to know more, I liked the part about G being with other piggies and so I kept telling her that.  From what little I know about talking to kids about death, it seems honesty is best.  I know you don't tell them someone or something has "gone to sleep" because it can make them afraid to fall asleep and cause sleeping problems.

In other news, I'm still "napping" by D some days.  Today I am, and the last two days I did as well.  I'll play it by ear depending on how she's doing and how I'm doing.  If I really need time to myself, I'll put her in the toddler bed.  But some days I just still really want to be by her, and as long as I can sneak away at some point during her nap and my back isn't killing me, I'll keep doing it.

Another quiet night

D is asleep in bed, and husband and I are downstairs watching tv, enjoying the cool quiet night.  The neighbor's frogs are noisy and I love listening to them.  I had to close the sliding door in our bedroom (that leads to the balcony) so the frogs don't wake D up.

I've mostly stopped reading the old blogs I used to look at (not counting friends' blogs).  SouleMama for example, and many others.  All the blogs primarily about moms who have all these hours in the day to make popsicles at home, sew their children's clothing and knit their socks, tend chickens, make their own graham crackers, have meticulously beautiful homes with not a thing ever out of place.  I guess it makes me annoyed!  My life is not like that, it can't be, and I'm okay with that.  I guess when I see these other blogs, my gut feeling is they can't be real.  How can you have children and have time for all that?  How does a picture of your living room not have socks, balls, dog toys, half-eaten pretzels and squeezie pouches, and baby toys everywhere?  When I have free time, depending on how tired I am, I might take the kayak out on the river, or like tonight I might sit on the couch next to Pug and watch TV.  Other times, I clean or organize or shower.  Sometimes I read.  I have dreams of writing again, and I do a little sometimes.  When the babysitter comes, husband and I go on a walk or have a picnic or go out to dinner.  In the recent past when my back was hurting, I'd go to the chiropractor, and back in February and March, to the acupuncturist.  Husband and I have taken to calling my former craft room the attic.  For a while it pained me to think of my unused fabric sitting in there.  Now I'm okay with it.

Anyway, one blog I've been looking at on and off over the last year is the Road is Home.  It's probably one of the loveliest little blogs I've ever seen.  Stunning photographs.  Beautiful writing.  It's about a very young family and their baby.  I just love it.

Meanwhile in our neck of the woods, I am finally starting to have D try to take naps in her toddler bed.  She is 18 months old and she has always napped next to me in bed.  She still nurses to sleep-- we will be nursing for as long as she wants, I think-- so I didn't know how this transition would go.  I felt and still feel a bit unsure about the transition.  Sometimes I think, she's only so little for a tiny speck of time.  But since she sleeps with us at night too, it's okay if she sleeps in the toddler bed for the nap.  Day One went better than I imagined.  I explained to her that she's a toddler now and this is her toddler bed.  I told her I would be by her side while she slept (mostly true-- when she fell asleep, I moved to the rocking chair across the room).  When she cried, I held her and we hugged.  I did not want to leave her to "cry it out".  It pains me too much and it distresses her, and I want to be there for her.  So I held her while she cried.  We read a book about guinea pigs, then I nursed her in the toddler bed (me sitting by the side-- it worked).  She fell asleep and stayed asleep for 30 minutes.  Today she slept for 35 minutes.  Success!  We sleep very well together at night, most nights.  Last night she got 11 hours of sleep, and typically she gets around 11 these days.  I enjoy having her close to me at night.  We have a king bed, so there is plenty of room for the three of us.  Sometimes she scoots close to me to nurse, and other times for long stretches of the night, she sleeps a foot or so away from me.  We all like the arrangement.

I like this book, "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" for alternate ideas to the "cry it out" method.  I also have the "no cry nap solution".  But any of this can be done without a book and just with your gut!  That's how I came up with our nap transition.  I knew in my heart I didn't want it to be too hard on her, and I didn't want her to experience this drastic change on her own.  It feels right to me to do it the way I'm doing it, just as it feels right to me to still nurse her and still co-sleep.